Faded Dreams, Falling Like Rain
A Final Fantasy VII Fan Fiction by Sarah Digna Yudlowitz, Jenova's Puppet Strings
E-mail Address: Lildeharou@aol.com
(Send all questions, comments, praises flames, etc. here)
AIM screenname:TwiggickenFever (If you wish to talk to the author, she will be happy to respond)
Dream . . .
Dream of death . . .
Dream of moonlight . . .
Legal Disclaimer: Final Fantasy VII and all of its characters belong to the company of Squaresoft. I do not claim these characters or the concept of the game for my own. This work is not to be distributed, sold, or posted anywhere without the consent of its author. Comments and encouragements are always welcomed, as they are a part of the enjoyment of writing Fan fiction. Please take this into consideration while you read the following fiction.
Legal Disclaimer: Final Fantasy VII and all of its characters belong to the company of Squaresoft. I do not claim these characters or the concept of the game for my own. This work is not to be distributed, sold, or posted anywhere without the consent of its author. Comments and encouragements are always welcomed, as they are a part of the enjoyment of writing Fan fiction. Please take this into consideration while you read the following fiction.
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Rating: R (Status: ongoing)
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The following fan fiction is rated R due to language (although pretty spread out), violence, disturbing imagery, male/male implications, sexual tension all throughout (pretty angsty), and messing with the occult and Kabbalah.
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Pairings: Sephiroth/ Cloud (dreams, manipulations, sexual tension) Sephiroth/ Zack (Implied Sex), Sephiroth/Jenova(as Cloud)/Clones (Eh, you'll see), Cloud/Lilith Valentine, (implied sex), Cid/Shera (LOTS of sexual tension)
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Brief summary: After the death of Sephiroth, Cloud must deal with his newly found self. Vincent sees somewhat of a kindred spirit in the blonde-haired boy, as he had spent some years as an experiment, and was duped into believing that he was "created," so he decides to help him out with what he's dealing with. A mysterious woman appears, and Cloud seems to just realize that he undeniably loved Sephiroth, and he never really wanted to admit it to himself. However, there are things revealed about Sephiroth that Cloud never knew, or forgot about in his coma (pre-game). With the appearance of this woman, Cloud also realizes that not everything is over with . . .
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Chapter Twenty-Five
The walls of what felt like an enclosed womb shuddered around Lilith, and too weak, she stared into the eyes of a daemon. She felt him more in mind than in presence, her IV still pumping its sustenance into her blood stream while the heart monitor, its beeping relentless, mirrored the slow and labored beating of her heart.
Lilith didn't know whether she was conscious or dreaming. Everything was hazy, like a dream, but she felt sentient, capable of analyzing her situation. And yet, she did nothing, for she could not. Before her stood a large winged beast, its thoughts assaulting her brain, and she could see the pure animalistic joy of the hunt, of homicidal urge. She thought its chaotic mind much like hers, found herself spinning into darkness, and staring into the eyes of Vincent, her true father. Sitting, hugging his legs to his body, and completely naked, he seemed fragile and easy to break, and somewhere inside her, excitement flared to match the beast's passion for blood, for power.
Vincent's wide eyes stared at her, considering the implications of her being within his mind. Their crimson color shone like humanity, and brought her down from her animalistic high, her skin left tingling with unused energy. A few moments seemed like an eternity as Vincent turned away, clutching his head as if a terrible migraine was afflicting him.
"W-why . . . are you here?" he struggled out between bared teeth. Lilith looked down at her own hands, finding the needle embedded in her vein gone. She looked up once more and felt an ever growing confusion.
"Am I dreaming? . . . your death?" She cocked her head at Vincent, who was struggling for dominance between himself and his beast counterpart. Undoubtedly, he was losing.
"JENOVA! . . . I sensed her in you all the time . . ."
"What are you talking about, Vincent?!" Lilith knelt by Vincent's side and watched as he struck her down almost with indifference.
Lilith! Get back! What's going on here?!
Cloud . . . help me . . . he's killing me . . .
"I should just let it consume me . . ." Vincent said, sitting up. He shook terribly, looking like a wraith, with his sunken in cheeks and gossamer black hair turned limp and messy. Lilith lay limply on her back an arm's length away from him. She stared up at him.
"This is about Lucrecia."
"What do you know about her? You know nothing.You are the reason that she's dead," he said, only noticing how cold it sounded after the fact. His true thoughts had finally come out into the opening, and now he couldn't meet those penetrating green eyes.
"And I pay for it with every memory that courses through me!" Lilith screamed at him. She stood above him and laughed. "You're such a fool, Vincent . . . how could you have thought you were ever worth anything? I'm glad mother is dead. I killed her. I killed Hojo. I killed brother. I'm glad you're going to die now. I hate you."
"What are you saying?" Vincent stared pathetically at her.
"I am Lucrecia, Aerith, Hojo, and Sephiroth. I am the universe. I am JENOVA. Have you ever wondered why your nightmares were so real? Why Lucrecia haunted you? I inhabit the mind, Vincent. I plauge it. And now, you will die at Cloud's hands, and I will guide him. His soul is rich with poison. This pathetic planet will feel it course through its roots, will feel my power as I absorb it and make it a part of me."
* * *
Cloud dodged a deadly blow as Chaos-cloaked Vincent swiped a massive clawed arm at his face. He didn't want to harm the beast because it was a part of Vincent, but he was finding that the area around them could not contain his friend's new bulk. The beast kept charging at him, and Cloud was finding himself quickly tiring from circling the four cornered small hospital room. The walls were getting a full run-through by Chaos's horns . . . it just wouldn't do. And where could he go? Outside the hall people were screaming and frantically scrambling to safety. Lilith remained outside the doorway, where Cloud rested her against a wall. She seemed as if a limp doll. She was softer and more feminine. She didn't seem as imposing . . . so much like her brother. Suddenly, Cloud felt his mind being invaded like so many times before, and his arm jerked forward in a skillful swipe with his sword, catching the ramming beast off guard, and slashing it across the chest.
"Blood!" its shrill bloodthirsty voice screeched. The leathery wings tore open from its back and it let out a horrible sound. Cloud seemed unfazed, his eyes clouding over. In his mind, he was trying to combat the overwhelming urge to hurt the Chaos beast, but he was increasingly growing agreeable. He stalked forward with calculated steps and held his sword up over his shoulder. He stared into the beast's eyes and ran it through with the sword as it cast a fiery beam skyward.
"Masamune," Cloud whispered to himself as it clattered to the floor. He held his bloody palms to his face and slowly began to work it into his cheeks, laughing with an almost jovial manner. The Chaos beast fell forward and fell away, revealing a shattered and dead Vincent tumbling to the floor. He stared impassively at the dead man, seeming almost intrigued, but instead headed toward Lilith.
"It's ours . . . all of it . . . ripe for the taking," the woman said as her eyes popped open. Cloud nodded and helped her up. As he walked away, carpeted floors in the Shinra building appeared before him, and he was trailing blood as he held the headless JENOVA in his arms as he walked on with a purpose, her beautiful prose filling his thoughts, making his lips curl upward.
Sephiroth's ten-year-old broken fingers curled toward the center of his palms painfully, making his hands into tight fists.
"I'll get back at the world . . . I'll get back at you all . . . just you wait and see."
* * *
December 15th, x day, x month, x year
0400, SMT (Standard Midgar Time)
The two guards looked at each other. One was short and fat, the other was an intelligent-looking mousy woman who stared down at her friend through wireframe glasses. The shift was tight tonight, and they would have to be very cautious with one such patient, namely Sephiroth Valentine, who at that moment was being escorted back to his cell, more docile than usual. He stood between Biggs and Maelstrom, his hands and feet shackled. The usual straight jacket to keep him restrained was surprisingly unnecessary. In his arms, he carried the notebook he'd been pouring over for two weeks. There were many like it in his cell. It was the only thing that kept him restrained, to let him right.
Jesse, the woman guard looked at the notebook, then to Sephiroth, and then to the pile of others like it in his cell. She figured he acted out against the asylum because he was lonely. No one visited him. His murders were interesting. They intrigued her . . . he had a complex she had never encountered.
"What are you staring at, wench?" He snarled. "I am your master. You will bow before my supreme power."
"Of course," she smirked, mocking him as she bowed. Biggs and Maelstrom stuffed him into his cell and locked it behind him.
His was a sickness that could only be studied in Neurology and Psychology that dealt with Neurological studies. Sephiroth Valentine's seizures left him with the idea that he was a supreme being. He often referred to himself in the third person after a great spell. The trial revealed that his murders were performed while in this state. His kill count numbered over three hundred, not counting the persons he'd killed during the battle in Wutai. It was rumored that he'd gone mad years before the battle, however.
Jesse watched him scribble in his book through the window and shook her head, pitying him. His own father had experimented on him, using him as a guinea pig . . . and two months later, after knowing the results, had committed suicide. His son would grow up with the military drug afftecting him in such psychological ways that they would never be fully comprehended. The only person that had ever cared for him was a girl named Aerith Gainsburough, but that had also been his first victim killed in cold blooded murder.
"She told me that she wanted to know the real me . . . but I didn't understand . . . .I just didn't understand . . ."
These very words were told before the jury by Sephiroth himself. He was a man shrouded in paranoia and pain . . . he was an experiment gone wrong . . . never fully realizing how far from human he really was . . . but always pretending he was.
El Fin